Where dead is not quite dead
by AverageOrange
Summary: Harry and Severus step into a zombie-infested world. SLASH(established relationship: HP/SS) but never graphic, and never underage.
1. chapter 1

First thing Harry and Severus saw after setting a foot in new world was pile of dead people, and not-all-dead people crawling on the street. Harry almost face-palmed.

'Oh please, not again.'

'I told you we have to go for the second coordinate.'

'Last time you did, we went to the bloody frozen world. And what did we get? Pack of five-feet ice-wolves attacking us! At least those things don't attack us.'

Severus quickly went to the nearest horde of undeads to analyze the bodies.

'There is no magical residue.'

'Are you saying they are due to muggle disease or something? Like zombies but not Inferi?'

'Precisely, and there is no single magical residue in this world aside from us.'

'Bloody hell, this is a nightmare. How do we survive ten years here? We would be bored to death.'

'We decided we would see for curing a disease like this. Knowing our luck, if we leave it like this we would be coming here again.'

Yes, this was not the first time they encountered something like this. Once or twice they had ignored all the problems, just holed up somewhere they could quietly live, and exited that universe as fast as possible. That ten years were just with research, wandering around, and getting peculiar ingredients for Severus's work. But for all their bad luck, they had returned to that particular universe. And boy, it was horrible. After all, ten years with groaning and roaming dead people was tad boring. Then they decided they would find the cure and save some population to come back to. Dystopian world with few people was better than a world with no people at all.

'Where would be the nearest research center? Or just university with any laboratory would be good.'

'If we can capture a living person then he or she can point us. You know, I am not from here.' Harry deadpanned.

Finding living people was not that difficult. Since they were in the big city area, all they had to do was to scan the area for any human signal. They spotted a tired looking man in an abandoned building, and after quick rummaging through his memory, they found the exact place. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Harry Potter Series or The Walking Dead Franchise.

They stood in front of the CDC. Same as everywhere, there were piles and piles of bodies. But when they scanned the vicinity, a blue light blinked in the center.

'Hm'

'It looks like there's only one person alive in there.'

'It's weird isn't it? Just one?'

There were thick metal shutter doors blocking the way in.

'You think that person will let us in?'

'No, I doubt it. That one's at the underground right now.'

Therefore, Harry had transfigured the door into a teapot and after they got through re-transfigured it back. Severus was not amused.

'I know, I know, Sev. We ought to hide our magic and all that. But it was this or blasting that door off.'

'This place definitely got some security cameras, we really need to erase it.'

Quite suddenly, there was a gaping man holding a shot gun in front of a lift.

'…And his memory.'

The man looked shell-shocked. But maybe he decided it would be a hallucination or something, and opened his mouth.

'Are you infected?'

'No, we are definitely not.'

'This is Severus Snape and I'm Harry Potter. Call me Harry.'

'…Dr. Edwin Jenner. What brings you here?'

'We are scientists. I am a Chemist and Harry is my apprentice. We were stranded during our holiday and wanted to find a research center or somewhere we could be a help.'

'If you want to come in you must go through a blood test.'

'Of course.'

The main research center was in underground, so they had to take a lift.

'Vi, please lock down the lobby and cut the power.'

'Who's Vi?'

'Vi, say hello to our guests.'

'Welcome'

'Ooh, those computer programs.'

Since they couldn't give out their non-existent blood, they had to use different persuasion tactic. After some persuading through strong Confundus, Obliviate, and memory altercation, Jenner became friendly enough. And of course by then Severus seen everything in Jenner's head. Severus gave Harry a look that told him they need to talk.

'What did you find out so far on the disease?'

'Come follow me.'

They followed the man to a big room with many computers that they passed before. Then Dr. Jenner showed them their data on the so-called Wildfire virus and their data on the 'Test subject 19'. They didn't even flinch when the screen abruptly ended with a gunshot wound to the subject's head.

'So they die completely once and come back to life.'

'Yes, it makes the brain stem work again. Even after so many experiments, even after so many devoted scientists…we couldn't find how it could do that.'

Jenner gave the screen a sad look. Harry wanted to comfort the man, but then decided against it.

'Dr. Jenner, I know this question would be hard on you, but what happened at the center then? Why are you all by yourself in here?'

'At first we thought we can find the cure.…Then the army got overrun and people in here couldn't get out the door and face the world. So, they opted out. There was a rash of suicides in this very building.'

'I'm so sorry to hear that. Do you think other countries made some accomplishment? Did you get any information from somewhere?'

'I don't know. Other facilities most likely went down. We lost every outside communication and all. It's been almost been a month since last call.'

Jenner struggled after his speech, he clearly hadn't talked in a while. The man went to the corridor.

'You should rest. The cafeteria is on that way and you can select any living quarters. Shower's down there but you shouldn't do anything consuming high electricity.'

Severus and Harry shared a look after that.

When they were alone in the room sitting on the bed, Severus finally summed up the information he found from Jenner's mind.

'The pathogen, whether it is a virus or other microorganism, is most likely airborne. At first they thought it spread through undeads' bite and scratch, but even those who died of illness eventually became one they call _the Infected_. All the people they had run the blood test on was already infected. When they found out that people lost all the hope.'

'Oh, that's what happened here then.'

'The last research center that had researched for a cure was the French, but before they could send any formidable result they used up every power source and their center got flamed up due to its built-in self-destruction mechanism. And it would happen here too if we use up all the fuel left.'

'Seriously? And he didn't mention that to us, huh?'

'He is waiting for it to happen. He is only staying alive because of the promise he made to his wife.'

'…Oh.'

Jenner was like Severus. Like he had once lived with a constant inner struggle between the guilt of losing Lily and the promise to save Harry. Harry scooted closer to the older man. Severus rolled his eyes at that but gave a fond smile.

'If we are to make a cure for this, we need him for a scientific point of view. I am most certainly sure that he would be the only scientist at least within 30 miles.'

'Do you think we should tell him the truth then? Do you think he could live again?'

'Not all of it. I'll make him first take a vow not to indulge our secrets to others, then we can tell him about magic. And for his will to survive, we will see soon enough.'

Day after that they made Dr. Jenner to make an Unbreakable Vow and told him about magic. The reaction was quite positive in that he didn't have a nervous breakdown or yelled at them in frenzy. He just stood up and went to take hard liquor.

'So…so you mean you can make a cure?'

'There's no guarantee, but if you couldn't make one with science then we could try with our method.'

'But… no, no, even if you can….if you had come quicker….the center…'

Jenner slouched on the couch and hid his face behind his hand.

Knowing what the man meant by that, Severus assured him.

'We already know about the decontamination system. But with magic, we have a solution to that. We can make the generator to use magic instead of fuel.'

'….Alright, but we can't leave the other pathogen samples lying there. Even if you could maintain energy level with your… your magic, it's too dangerous to leave it like that.'

'Say we could burn those with similar ways to HITs. Just let us know where to go and we'll take care of those.'

That day, they went to the quarantine sectors, warded the place so nothing can get out through air, and burned all the contents. After all, it wouldn't do to find a cure for one and spread another. After that, they located all of the thermobaric self-destruction mechanism throughout the center and vanished all the explosives and surrounding fuels to nullify the whole HITs system for added security.

'If we revise the generator to accept magical energy with some runework, then we could just charge it weekly.'

'Of course, you do the runes and I will charge it.'


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer :** I do not won Harry Potter Series and The Walking Dead Franchise

Living in CDC was not that bad. Even with Jenner's company, they had enough privacy with wards around their quarters. And of course the first thing they did was to take care of the security cameras in the area. After all, there was no need to make more evidence of magic. While Severus and Harry built up labs at Sector 7, Dr. Jenner was quite desperately trying to be useful around them. It was understandable in that he was counting down days and hours to his own demise but suddenly found a hope. After some fumbling through the results and samples, Severus, feeling both pity and no-small amount of annoyance, designated him some work to do. Now he was copying and printing all of the original research results just in case the server system went down. Jenner still stood stock still whenever he witnessed them doing magic, more so as a true scientist, but he was grateful to have a resemblance of hope.

They built a research and experimenting room next to their potions lab for test subjects, too. Their sector was made for a complete lockdown. Since they would have to bring in undeads in the facility, they blocked entire sector with metal walls. With no apparation, one should at least tear down the walls to make a way in.

'After we finish up the basics, we need to get some test subjects. Both undeads and if possible, alive ones.'

'There were plenty of zombies in the city, so I can make a gateway here and bring those in. And for now, hopefully Dr. Jenner will allow us to use some of his blood for samples.'

When they asked, Dr. Jenner jumped to the chance to volunteer to be a test subject. While drawing blood, he kept rambling about his wife and to what extent he would do to make a cure. It was quite sad, really. After full months of despair, Jenner's sanity clearly slipped a little. Every sample, even Jenner's wife's-the Test Subject 19's- was relocated in the sector 7. For the set-up they couldn't do much for research but they at least did all the labeling and some diagnosis. Life in CDC was quiet and safe.

One day, there was a group of survivors on the ground level right out of the gate.

'Harry, Dr. Snape! There are people out the gate right now.' Hearing Dr. Jenner's announcement through the speaker, they quickly went through sterilizing process and apparated to the big room. Jenner enthusiastically pointed at the screen. 'See here. They even got kids!'

The survivors on the screen waved their hands and shouted nonsense. With many yells overlapping, it was hard to decipher what they were saying. Also, that noise was attracting all the undeads around. 'They were doing that for quite a while, I was on my quarters when Vi alerted me.'

Severus sneered as more and more undeads surrounded the group. 'That's quite many survivors… and pretty dumb ones at that.' Harry couldn't help but snort at Severus's antics.

'Should we let them in?' At Jenner's nervous but hopeful face, Severus gave a small nod to the man. A human company would be at least good for the man's sanity. 'Perhaps. Let us go to the surface. Hold my arm.'

Once they opened the door, they closed it right after the last of the bunch got through. It was a close call. A zombie's arm got cut off by descending shutter. The survivors were panting heavily and some slumped on the floor, but three men stood in a defensive stance to cover the rest. Just in case, Harry and Snape stood in front of Jenner while he delivered a customary welcome speech.

'Anybody infected?' There were several murmurs of No and headshakes.

'Why are you here, and what do you want?'

The man at the very front sounded very desperate. 'A chance.'


End file.
